Border Patrol arrests Cuban man near Del Rio on reentry charge
A Cuban man arrested near El Indio now faces a federal reentry charge that can bring up to 20 years, after prior removals and a Florida child-sex case.
Border Patrol agents patrolling a remote stretch near El Indio on June 1 encountered seven people hiding in brush, and one of them now faces a felony reentry case that carries far harsher consequences than a routine immigration stop. U.S. Customs and Border Protection identified the man as Lazaro Alberto Betancourt-Osorio, 44, a Cuban national who had already been removed from the United States twice.
The case matters in Val Verde County because it did not end with a simple apprehension and transfer. CBP says records showed Betancourt-Osorio had been convicted in Florida in 2012 of using a computer to seduce, solicit and lure a child, and of traveling to meet a child after using a computer to lure. He was sentenced to 42 months in prison, removed from the country in 2016 after serving that sentence, later found again in the United States illegally in 2025, and removed again.
That history is what turns this from a standard border encounter into a federal criminal reentry prosecution. CBP says Betancourt-Osorio now faces a charge under 8 U.S.C. § 1326, the statute used for reentry of a removed alien. The maximum penalty can reach 20 years in prison, reflecting how federal law treats repeated return after removal, especially when the person has a serious criminal record.
The arrest also landed in a border sector that remains one of Texas’ largest and most watched. CBP says the Del Rio Sector covers 245 miles of the Rio Grande and Lake Amistad, spans 55,063 square miles across 47 counties, and has had a Border Patrol presence since July 1, 1924. Its stations include Carrizo Springs, Del Rio, Eagle Pass, Brackettville, Comstock, Uvalde, Rocksprings, San Angelo and Abilene.
Even with broader encounter numbers falling, the incident shows how smuggling routes and repeat crossings still reach the brush country around El Indio and Del Rio. FOX SA has reported that Del Rio-area encounters are down more than 81 percent year over year, while smuggling investigations remain active, making arrests like this one less common than during peak border surges but still consequential when they involve prior removals and child-sex convictions.
This article was produced by Prism’s automated news system from verified source data, official records, and press releases, then run through automated quality and moderation checks before publishing. The system is built and supervised by the people who set the standards it runs under. Read our full AI policy.
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